MGM to Team With 20th Century Fox for Poltergeist Remake

“They’re heeere. The TV people:” Longtime partners MGM and 20th Century Fox will be partnering to co-finance and distribute a revisionist take on the 1982 horror film, Poltergeist.

The remake will be marketed and distributed by 20th Century Fox, while MGM will handle international territories and international television distribution, THR reports.

Gil Kenan (Monster House) will direct from a screenplay by David Lindsay-Abaire (Oz: The Great and Powerful), who won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2007 for his play, Rabbit Hole. The film is also in the hands of seasoned horror-film headliners Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert (both worked on the 1981 cult film Evil Dead), who will produce the film along with Roy Lee (The Departed) and executive producer Nathan Kahane (Juno).

The original classic—penned by Steven Spielberg and directed by Tobe Hooper—was nominated for three Academy Awards (sound effects, visual effects and original score). The updated movie will focus on a financially struggling family that relocated to an outdated suburban home only to face an angry spirit who kidnaps their youngest daughter. Production is slated to begin in Toronto this fall.